First Date
by Crystabel.Shalott
Summary: Annie and Finnick's first date. Modern day/AU


**Author's note:** Takes place before 'Ice Cream and Happiness'.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own 'The Hunger Games', they belong to Suzanne Collins.

**First Date:**

She had a date with Finnick Odair. Finnick Odair, the golden boy of Panem University. Finnick Odair one of the Careers, the most famous group of rich, arrogant and self-centered students at PanemUni. That Finnick Odair had a date with Annie Cresta, whom in terms of popularity was a nobody. Ok, maybe someone could have noticed the girl Finnick Odair constantly talked to between classes or at lunch, but she didn't really had a large group of friends here. Nor at home, to be sincere: her acquaintances could have been counted on the finger of one hand. One hand not two. She didn't let people come too near to her, because what do people do except hurting you? Or letting you down? Or worse?

Then why did she accepted to give Finnick a chance? Why is she ready to trust him?

Unfortunately Annie couldn't find an answer to that. Right maybe it was related to the fact that she felt good when she was with him. To the fact that lately she felt this strange cocktail of emotions inside her: there was the usual anxiety, the usual fright but also something else. Something she couldn't quite place in the spectrum of emotions she felt, until now, in her life.

_He is just messing around with you! He will hurt you, better to end it now._

"Stop it" she whispers, trying to make disappear the voices in her mind. Those voices that set free all her insecurity, those voices she learnt to suppress but that, in moments like this, would come back with such a violence that she often ended up listening to them. But there was no way it would have worked with Finnick. Cancelling their date, for which he waited so long, would have only made him more stubborn: he would have come anyway asking for explanations and he wouldn't have stopped until he knew her sudden change of mind.

_Then tell him the truth._

And she wanted to tell him the truth about her: all her issues and problems, her complete and utter distrust towards people. It was something she actually should have done earlier. When they first met. So maybe he would have never wanted to be acquainted with her. And she could have had her peace, there was no risk to be tormented or deluded.

But not this time. This time she would have tried to enjoy herself and what would have come would have come.

_You have been warned. It's just one phone call, one simple call and you will be safe._

"No, I want this. I'll do this" she says out loud, while opening the cabinet doors so she could decide what to wear. The result of this process is a pile of clothes on her bed while she wears a white knee long skirt and a green t-shirt that matches her eyes. She lets her hair fall down in gentle curls, framing her pale face. She likes it. She wants to look pretty for once. And she doesn't want this date to be a flop, even if she thinks this isn't such a good idea.

When the doorbell rings she takes a deep breath and goes to open the door.

Finnick is standing in front of her with a radiant smile on his face. He wears a blue t-shirt and a pair of consumed jeans. In one hand he is holding a paper bag and in the other a blanket.

"Hello Cresta! You look very pretty if I can say it" he says, as soon as he sees her.

"Finnick, do come in. I just have to grab my hand bag, put on my shoes and I'll be ready"

"Oh, before I forget. I have something for you"

He hands her the paper bag and as Annie opens it she notices it's a book. Not a new one, but a book that has been read already many times: the spine and cover are a little ruined. It's 'The Perks Of Being A Wall Flower' by Stephen Chbosky. She heard about it but never got the opportunity to read it. She opens the first page and sees that in Finnick's messy handwrite there is written a note.

_'Annie, _

_you is kind, you is smart, you is important. Never forget that. _

_Love Finnick'_

"It's my own copy! But I want you to have it, and as soon as you read it you'll find out why"

"Thanks Finn. It wasn't necessary"

"It was, trust me. Now let's go!"

Finnick takes her hand holding it tight. She feels a little uncomfortable with it mainly because she was letting him come in too quickly inside her life. She trusted him too quickly. She shouldn't do this, her rationality said she shouldn't. It would only end in disaster and that's why Annie Cresta didn't let come anyone near her.

"Annie, are you ok?"

She just nods. Talking about her thought would only require an even more longer explanation about her past, and she isn't ready for it.

"Where are we going?"

"District Four. Tonight on the menu: fish and chips. Annie if you are worried about me know this: I'm not going to hurt you nor will I let you down"

"No, it's not this. Still, I've never been to District Four"

Because it is a place of meeting for people and first she had no one to go with, second she didn't like crowded places. But that didn't mean that she didn't know about it, apparently they made excellent food. The restaurant, if one could call it this way, was a small building: with tables and benches on the outside as well as in the inside, the advantage was that it was placed near the ocean so there was a spectacular view. Inside the air smelled like fish and was full with the buzz of people talking. People of all ages, families, friends, couples.

Finnick orders to portions of F&C to take away, then balances it all in the same hand he was holding the blanket and takes her to the beach. Finnick saw how Annie acted in crowded places, it seemed she shrunk and made herself very little in order not to get noticed. He didn't knew why she reacted like this, and he wouldn't have pressed her to tell him. Some things had to come out naturally, at the right time.

"We are going to have a pick-nick tonight. I know that you don't feel comfortable around people and we won't be disturbed here. And we don't have to forget it's much nicer outside"

They walk barefoot on the sand, letting the water wet their skin. Finnick doesn't let go of her hand until they have reached a spot where Finnick exclaims "Here will do" before handing her the dinner and spreading the blanket on the sand. To Annie's surprise there is no one around them, she never had a busy schedule during her teenage years but she was quite sure that people go out, especially in summer evenings.

"It's a little bit early for people to be around, and even then they usually stay near the bars and ice-cream shops. If that's what you were wondering about"

"It's beautiful" she says while looking in front of her "Like a photo... Which makes me think. Hold this" she says handing her cone of chips to Finnick to hold it. She takes her camera out of her hand bag and makes a few photos at the horizon, than she turns around and makes a photo of Finnick. It is unexpected on his part and he begins to protest and telling her to delete it.

"No! It's natural!" she tells him laughing "My aim as photographer is to capture life, the truth beneath the surface. It wouldn't be the same if you strike a pose. Besides I doubt you could ever appear ugly in a photo"

"Have you always wanted to become a photographer?" he says after a while.

"Not really, no. It's because I saw an exposition a few years ago and I was fascinated by it, so I decided to study it at university. Those photos captured moments that would have only got forgotten. Everything changes, nothing will ever be the same but I know that I will have captured the right moment. Saying it out loud sounds stupid, I'm sorry"

"It doesn't, trust me"

He listens captured as she tells him how with the right techniques the photo seems alive. How she always put money aside since that exhibition to buy herself a nice camera without bothering her parents about the money, how she has always a camera with her because there were always moments to capture on film. She has such a passion explaining it to him, she has such a passion doing it. It was something rare. And Finnick likes it: she makes it all sound interesting.

"And you, why have you chosen literature?"

"Because it was one of the few things I was really good at, but I didn't chose it because of that. Officially yes, but what I like about it is that you can relate to it from wherever you are from: what is literature if not a representation of human nature? Hundreds of years and the feelings are still the same. Emotions don't change, they are complicated but they don't change"

A quote from Alan Bennet's 'The History Boys' comes to her mind "The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours". It's a quote she remembers because it described her feeling when she read a book. She knew exactly what Finnick was talking about, it probably happened to every reader in the world to see on paper emotions one knew oh-too-well.

But now she was curious about one thing: what gave Finnick the hint to make of literature his passion? There is always something that starts it all, just like that exhibition for her.

"What was the first book you read entirely, classics, I mean. And I am not referring to the school assigned ones"

"Great Expectations. Mags, my grandmother that is, gave it to me"

"How old where you?"

"Seventeen"

"And how was the seventeen year old Finnick, apart from a Dickens fan?"

"A complete and utter jerk. Seriously my life was a mess: I looked for attention in every way possible. I just wanted my parents to acknowledge my existence. Irrelevant to say it that I didn't reach my intent, literally I could have done anything and they wouldn't have cared. And I was considered by everyone just a pretty face, no one took me seriously. Not that my way of acting discouraged it"

"What happened with your parents now?"

"We have a cold relationship. Admit the truth made it easier. But I have Mags and she is the most important person in the world to me. She is family"

She thinks a moment about what he told her. She couldn't imagine a family in which the parents didn't pay the slightest attention to their children. In that way she had been fortunate: she had loving parents and a sister who was one of her best friends too.

"What were you doing at seventeen?"

_Tell him the truth. Tell him the truth. Tell him the truth. _

"Annie it's OK, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to"

She tries to lie. But the words are on the tip of her tongue and won't go away: she feels like she can trust him, like she can open up about her heart and let it all out without him judging her.

_Just do it._

"I was in a self destructive whirl" she says with a flat voice "I was bullied in high-school, not physically but psychologically. It degenerated all too quickly. It run out of hands. And the result was a disaster. They called me awkward Annie or Crazy Cresta, told me I was a nobody. Only that I always was shy so it got worse. I begun to law-estimate myself, to believe what they were saying about me and then the voices started. It's like a battle between my rational side and the irrational one. And I am far too introverted, insecure, shy, afraid of people and I have developed serious trust issues" she pauses a moment to catch breath "now you'll think me crazy too"

Finnick looks at her "No. You aren't crazy, you don't have to think about it, not for one second. And you are important, to me for sure. For your family too. And I am sorry for what happened to you, I truly am. And I will spent the rest of the time I spend with you reminding what an extraordinary person you are. If necessary"

She shut her eyes close, and lowered her head.

"Annie, are you crying?"

It looked like she was about to cry, her face distorted in a grimace. But then she lets the laughter that was in her throat out. She laughs about the picture that came to her mind of Finnick constantly walking beside her and stressing her about the fact that she was normal.

"No" she says when she catches breath.

"You know you look like your about to cry when you laugh?"

She nods. "Well we can't all smile in your charming way: those smirks you give when your left side of the mouth rises before the right one" she blurts out, immediately repenting what she said and covering her mouth with her hands.

"So you did notice me in the last year Cresta!"

"It is so embarrassing" she says between her laughs. A light blush spreads on her cheeks.

"Well, who wouldn't notice Finnick Odair?"

"Seriously, couldn't you come out with a better quote?"

"Why don't you like it? Don't you believe I am one of the most handsomest people on earth?" he smirks.

"Well... No. But you don't have to be upset, you're the one who said he didn't like to be considered just a pretty face"

"Now you're right"

They spent the evening talking, sometimes Annie shoots a few photos, but most of the time they do talk about everything that passes their minds: dreams, hopes, favorite books, favorite movies. To their surprise It all comes so natural, they open up and let the other one in their life. It's like they knew each other for ever but at the same time for the first time they see how they truly are. No secrets, all scars revealed, all the card are in front of them. They end up lying on the blanket, Finnick's arm around Annie's waist, her head on his chest. It feels good, it feels natural and it feels right. Suddenly Annie leans on her forearm facing Finnick, she smiles to him and lower her face to his. She kisses him lightly and is herself surprised by her action. She parts and look Finnick in the eyes

"Do we have a chance?"

"We have, Annie. We have"


End file.
